Gorgeous scenery on a day with perfect weather. After shopping in Jackson we drove to Teton Village to ride the “new” air tram. Back when we last visited in the summer of 1998 we saw the tram being built but it wouldn’t open until December that year, so I’ve been itching to get back here and finally ride it. It’s a spectacular ride; from around 6,000′ up to 10,450′ in 12 minutes.
At the top is a hut with drinks and waffles, as well as some hiking trails off into the Tetons. During winter the only way down is either Black Diamond or Double Black Diamond runs… or chickening out and riding the tram back down.
Summer is short in Wyoming but they take full advantage of it to do road repairs, which unfortunately for us meant doubling back to Jackson to get to Grand Teton NP since Moose-Wilson Rd was closed just north of Teton Village.
The views of the Tetons were just as spectacular as I remember. Next time through here I’m going to bring a proper camera as I don’t feel like the iPhone does it justice.
We drove out north of GTNP and into Yellowstone, past the area that in 1998 was still smoldering from forest fires. The vegetation has recovered somewhat, but it’s still obvious where the fire came through and torched many square miles.
Only a couple hundred miles driven today, but because of the low speed limits in the parks we didn’t get to West Yellowstone until around 6pm. We skipped over the thermal areas since we’re going to be here a few days and only made stops when we saw animals, including an enormous elk that stepped out of the woods onto the road right in front of us.